Beating a dead horse

ČSSD, with the initial help of Václav Klaus's famous "fake and vacuous" SMS, has done an excellent job of destroying the reputation of ODS Chair Mirek Topolánek. Hardly a person is now alive who considers Topolánek grade-A material. To drive the message home, Health Minister David Rath told LN on Sat. that Topolánek is an anti-talent, ODS's destructor, very strongly below-average, a feeble figure and lacking in education, intelligence and deftness. Potentially ČSSD's biggest campaign error, though, is failing to recognize that voters have already factored this in. If ODS wins in June, it will be largely because voters are looking beyond Topolánek. Rath is beating a dead horse and doesn't see where this is taking him. How will his own political deftness measure up when he loses his Prague race not only to Topolánek, but also to the Green Party's candidate, Martin Bursík? [Czech Republic chairman Lidové noviny]